TORONTO — Ken Taylor, Canada’s ambassador to Iran who sheltered Americans at his residence during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, has died. He was 81.
Taylor’s wife, Pat, said he died Thursday after a two-month battle with colon cancer.
Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and at the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran for three months. Taylor facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports.
Some of Taylor’s exploits in Iran in 1979 later became the subject of the 2012 Hollywood film “Argo.”
He was heralded as a hero in the U.S. and Canada for helping save the Americans in the clandestine operation.
But Taylor and others, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, felt the film downplayed his role and that of Canada in the operation.
Taylor, born in 1934 in Calgary, Alberta, has a legacy of generosity, his wife said.
“He did all sorts of things for everyone without any expectation of something coming back,” she said.
“It’s why that incident in Iran happened,” she said. “There was no second thought about it. He just went ahead and did it. His legacy is that giving is what is important, not receiving. With all his friends that’s what he did.”
